Tag: Alberto Gonzales (page 7)

When Kyle Sampson, Alberto Gonzales' Chief of Staff, resigned Monday in PurgeGate, Gonzales and others said it was because he didn't share the extent of his discussions about firing U.S. Attorneys with the DOJ officials who were tasked with providing information about the firings to Congress.

Now, Sampson has lawyered up and is changing his tune. His lawyer has issued a press statement.

"The fact that the White House and Justice Department had been discussing the subject for several years was well-known to a number of other senior officials at the department, including others who were involved in preparing the department's testimony to Congress," according to the statement by Sampson's lawyer, Bradford A. Berenson.

But, he's also playing both ends against the middle. His statement also says he resigned because he failed his boss.

White House Press Secretary Tony Snow today backtracked off the Harriet Miers story. He says people's memories are now hazy.

"It has been described as her idea but ... I don't want to try to vouch for origination," said White House press secretary Tony Snow, who previously had asserted Miers was the person who came up with the idea. "At this juncture, people have hazy memories."

Sung to the tune of Jimi Hendrix.

Purple haze all in my brain
Lately things just dont seem the same
Actin funny, but I dont know why
scuse me while I kiss the sky

I'll be discussing the firings on CNN's Reliable Sources Sunday morning at 10:00 am ET.

Update: New York Times on Snow's statement.

CBS legal analyst and author of the Washington Post's Bench Conference blog makes the case today for replacing Attorney General Alberto Gonzales with Patrick Fitzgerald.

In my humble opinion, and recognizing that there may be a few other worthy candidates, there is only one person who perfectly currently fits the bill. He is a Republican and a Bush-appointee, but not a partisan or a crony or a hack like so many other current appointees. He has a sterling record of integrity and doggedness. He is obviously his own man and has shown a remarkable tendency during his career as a prosecutor for rankling partisans on both sides of the aisle. He is beholden to no one. His nomination to head the Justice Department by President Bush, and his ratification by the Congress, would send a clear message to the country that our government is willing to turn the page on the sordid recent history of the Office of Attorney General. His name? Patrick J. Fitzgerald.

Who better, Cohen asks, to restore integrity and non partisanship to the Justice Department?

The newly released Rove e-mail raises a question of the White House's honesty in its original statement that the idea of possibly replacing all 93 U.S. Attorneys originated with Harriet Miers. It also shows that Alberto Gonzales was aware it was being discussed before he was confirmed as Attorney General, while he was still White House counsel.

The White House said Thursday night that the e-mails did not contradict the previous statements about former White House counsel Harriet Miers' role. The e-mail exchange, dated January 6, 2005, is between then-deputy White House counsel David Leitch and Kyle Sampson at the Justice Department. According to a senior White House official who has seen the e-mail exchange, "It's not inconsistent with what we have said."

The email is here.

It certainly is customary for Presidents to replace the previous President's U.S. Attorneys after an election. What's unusual here is that Bush was considering replacing his own appointments, since this was his second term.

So, what's the fuss about? One thing is whether the idea really originated with Harriet Miers. A second is timing...the discussions started earlier than the White House initially said. TPM Muckraker has put together a timeline. A third is whether the Administration told the truth when it said the idea of dismissing all the U.S. Attorneys was rejected out of hand as soon as Miers suggested it.

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Murray Waas has a new article in the National Journal, Internal Affairs, in which he reports that the aborted DOJ probe probably would have targeted Attorney General Alberto Gonzales:

Shortly before Attorney General Alberto Gonzales advised President Bush last year on whether to shut down a Justice Department inquiry regarding the administration's warrantless domestic eavesdropping program, Gonzales learned that his own conduct would likely be a focus of the investigation, according to government records and interviews.

Had it not been quashed, a Justice Department inquiry into the domestic eavesdropping program would likely have examined the actions of Alberto Gonzales.

Bush personally intervened to sideline the Justice Department probe in April 2006 by taking the unusual step of denying investigators the security clearances necessary for their work.

Sen. Patrick Leahy was on CNN's The Situation Room. Speaking of Karl Rove, he said (no link, received from show by e-mail):

BLITZER: The White House counsel, Fred Fielding, was up on the Hill today. I don't know if you had a chance to meet with him. But he's not necessarily ruling out allowing some White House staffers, maybe even Karl Rove to come and testify. Do you want Karl Rove to testify before your panel?

LEAHY: I've never met Mr. Fielding. Frankly, I don't care whether he says he's going to allow people or not. We'll subpoena the people we want. If they want to defy the subpoena, then you get into a stonewall situation I suspect they don't want to have.

BLITZER: Will you subpoena Karl Rove?

LEAHY: Yes. He can appear voluntarily if he wants. If he doesn't, I will subpoena him. The attorney general said, Well, there are some staff people or lower level people -- I'm not sure whether I want to allow them to testify or not. I said, Frankly, Mr. Attorney General, it's not your decision. It's mine and the committee's. We will have subpoenas. I would hope that they wouldn't try to stonewall subpoenas.

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I give it a week. Look what Bush said today:

“I do have confidence in Attorney General Al Gonzales,” Mr. Bush said of his old friend from Texas. But he said the dismissals had been bungled, “and frankly I’m not happy about it.” Mr. Bush, speaking at a news conference in Mérida, Mexico, with President Felipe Calderón of Mexico, said that he was pleased that Mr. Gonzales had acknowledged mistakes surrounding the dismissals, but that “Al’s got work to do up on the Hill,” a reference to the Capitol, where many Democrats and several Republicans have expressed anger and dismay over the firings. . . . [T]he president’s anger was clear. “This issue was mishandled to the point that you’re asking me about it now in Mexico,” Mr. Bush said. The president, who said he had spoken to Mr. Gonzales this morning, is to arrive later this afternoon in Washington, where lawmakers of both parties continued to criticize Mr. Gonzales.

Gonzo has work to do up on the Hill. We all know he can't turn that tide:

Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska told Bloomberg his confidence in the attorney general had been “shaken” and was “waning,” while Senator Gordon Smith of Oregon said, “I think I share the feeling of many Republican senators of profound disappointment.” And Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi, the Senate’s No. 2 Republican, declined to say whether Mr. Gonzales should stay. “That’s the president’s decision,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg News.

He can't fix it. It only gets worse. See you later Al.

Update (TL): Crooks and Liars has the video and transcript of Bush's comments.

Hillary Clinton will be on Good Morning America today, calling for the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

"The buck should stop somewhere," Clinton told ABC News senior political correspondent Jake Tapper, "and the attorney general — who still seems to confuse his prior role as the president's personal attorney with his duty to the system of justice and to the entire country — should resign.

She has a petition for you to sign on her website. John Edwards also called for Gonzales' resignation.

More....

I'm not surprised Republicans are not rallying to the defense of Alberto Gonzales. They care more about 2008 than they do about Bush or Gonzales at this point. As Bob Dylan sang, "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows."

Sen. Charles Schumer said Tuesday on Hardball that Kyle Sampson is the fall guy, much like Scooter Libby. I think Gonzales may be the fall guy.

Bush is standing by him right now, but how much pressure can he take from those within his party's ranks. Is anyone but Karl Rove not expendable to him? Remember when he named Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court? Bush fought the opposition until it reached a peak. Then, she withdrew her nomination and he accepted it.

Smart money would say the same will happen to Gonzales. Neither Bush nor Gonzales will listen to the Democrats. But if Republicans join the call for his resignation, it may be a done deal. Stay tuned.

The Washington Post has put up the text (all in pdf) of the e-mails exchanges and memos written by Justice Department and White House staff regarding the effort to remove U.S. attorneys.

The documents were obtained by The Washington Post and detail the political considerations and calculations made by key administration personnel:

• Set 1
• Set 2
• Set 3
• Set 4

• Washington Post: The Grand Elusion
• Ruth Marcus: Time to Go, Mr. Gonzales
• N.Y. Times Editorial: Politics, Pure and Cynical
• Legal Analyst Andrew Cohen has the first in a multi-part series in the Washington Post on the case against Alberto Gonzales.

Update: The transcript of the press conference is here.

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Live-Blogging Attorney General Alberto Gonzales''s News Conference on the U.S. Attorney firings. Scroll down for updates. Also check out TRex at Firedoglake.

Shorter version: I'm responsible and accountable but I'm staying on the job and will find out what happened.

2:15 p.m. Things he believes in:

The independence of the U.S. Attorneys. The AG and all all U.S. Attorneys serve at the pleasure of the president. He believes in the role of the Senate in the confirmation process He believes in accountability. He is responsible. He accepts responsibility. He acknowledges mistakes here and will find out what went wrong.

He's overcome a lot of obstacles to become AG. He's not going to give up. He's committed to doing his job and that is what he intends to do here.

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CREW has sent a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales demanding the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the firing of U.S. Attorneys.

Recent revelations indicate that a top-ranking Department of Justice official knew that statements made by top Department officials were not true. Clearly, the Department of Justice cannot investigate itself and prosecute the misconduct of DOJ officials. CREW also asked the Department of Justice’s Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility to investigate the situation.

Crew's position: